Isabella Karhall
Lady Isabella Blackthorne, née Karhall, was the firstborn daughter and third child of Lord Gawen Karhall and his wife Yvette of Brecilidia. She had a troubled childhood but as an adult was called "the most beautiful woman who had lived or ever will live;" her extraordinary appearance and enchanting presence drew her suitors from all over the realm, but she insisted that she would only marry the son of her liege-lord. Her union with Giacomo Blackthorne would go on to produce three sons; Arthur, Dominic and Roderic. The elder two would go on to win glory in the name of their House, and the impact that their mother had upon them in doing so cannot be understated. Isabella is still remembered by most of the realm and has become an almost mythical figure;it is said that those she met were never the same, and those she turned her affections to led charmed lives. By the time of her death in 1006AE she had been rendered immortal in countless songs and tales. She was mourned most, perhaps, by her oldest son Arthur with whom she had a particular bond. it is said that Arthur's youngest daughter, Talia, strongly resembles Isabella who was her grandmother. Appearance and Character Even from the moment of her birth, Isabella was a striking and unusual presence. She was said to have an almost eerie physical grace, and an ethereal aura about her that made her seem somehow greater than merely terrestrial. She had long red hair, Stormborn-scarlet in coloration, and hazel-brown eyes that seemed almost a burnished orange. Her face was heart-shaped with delicate features and long, pointed ears, while her skin was an almost luminescent pale white. She was as tall as any man; her limbs were long and slender, and she had a supple waist with a full chest. She often wore elaborate dresses and jewelry, with a fondness for amtheysts, sapphires and opals. She frequently wore a hood or mantle over her head when in public, which served to divert attention from her entrancing appearance. Isabella was mysterious and secretive. She had an interest in magic, sorcery and the supernatural, and could often be found studying ancient tomes in the library of whatever keep she was staying in. The dreams she had as a child may continue to have haunted her until her death. She was fixated upon her eldest son Arthur, and could frequently be seen at his councils, whispering in his ear of old prophecies and unfulfilled destinies. Her younger children received little to no such attention. While she could joke and laugh, her friends would always say that a sense of melancholy hung about Isabella Karhall, like she knew something terrible that no-one else did. History Gawen Karhall was an aging High Elven lord sworn to House Blackthorne; he had gained his position while still a young man after aiding the Rebellion in the Second Blackthorne Civil War, and his sons Dominic and Roderic had perished fighting against each other in 940AE. The grief felt by Gawen and his wife turned to a new closeness between them, and althrough they were both over a century old, they welcomed a new child in 942AE and named her Isabella. She was born on a dark and stormy winter's night, with a blizzard howling outside the keep, but it is said she did not cry out once she was born and instead remained eerily calm and silent. This pattern continued for years; she never cried, or made a sound, and the medics serving Lord Karhall were beginning to suspect that she was mute. That changed on the night of her fourth birthday; she awoke suddenly, screaming, from a nightmare and thereafter spoke with full vocabulary. The nightmares did not end, plaguing her for years and making her afraid of sleep. When asked she would claim never to remember what she had seen in those dreams, and as an adult would always harshly change the subject. Her younger sister Shiera once claimed that Isabella's dreams were visions; events of the past, glimpses of the present, and premonitions of a dark and terrible future. Prophetic dreams would have been treated as a sign of Witchcraft in the West, however, and thus she was forced to hide them. Accusations of being a secret Sorceress surfaced against her only occasionally as she grew, but were always dismissed. It is still unknown whether she had the gift of magic or not. As she grew to adulthood, it rapidly became apparent that Isabella would be a legendary beauty. Men, and even women, were often struck speechless in her presence, and the songs and stories about her appearance carried across the Realm. Gawen received nearly a hundred offers from potential suitors, but Isabella was adamant she would marry only one man--the Jolly Griffin, Giacomo Blackthorne. This was greeted with puzzlement; Giacomo was well-liked but was not an exceptional man, and no-one was sure how he had managed to win the affections of such a woman. Nevertheless they were happily married, and Isabella birthed three children; Arthur, Dominic, and Roderic, the latter two named after her long-dead brothers. Isabella doted on her eldest son, nursing him herself and often spending an unusual amount of time alone with him for a noble lady. As he grew, she would whisper to him constantly, telling him tales of destiny and future greatness; the young Arthur took these to heart and indeed became a great hero as his mother had told him. Her younger sons received little attention. Roderic accepted this blithely, but it made Dominic bitter. It is widely believed that their mother drove the brothers against each other; Dominic hated the attention lathered on Arthur when he was superior at every activity, while Arthur learned to be rampantly possessive about his own legacy at his mother's knee and was terrified of his powerful younger brother taking it from him. Isabella served as a vital part of Arthur's councils all through his lordship. She took a special interest in her eldest grandchild Gordon, an interest Arthur soon adapted as well. In the winter of 1006AE, Isabella became suddenly, violently ill; the "Rot" that plagues all High Elves, that had taken her parents, had come for her. She died on the first day of the Last Moon and was buried in the crypts beneath Griffin's Peak. Legacy Isabella was an irreplaceable part of her eldest son's life. When she was gone, he began to show increasing signs of mental instability, such as abusive behavior towards his younger children and delusions of grandeur. This culminated in his confrontation with a wild griffin in 1008AE, which left him grossly deformed and bedridden, leaving Dominic in control of the house. Isabella is eulogized in countless songs and stories; those who met her never forgot her, and many remain in love with her to this day. Rumors still circulate about her secretly being a powerful sorceress.